Stilben

The Rotted Lot

Stilben stinks to high heaven. Most sailors who pass through it—be they honest traders of the Clovis Concord in Wildemount or pirates seeking their next conquest—call this dismal burgh the Rotted Lot. The stink and the crime that run through this town make the name an apt one, but things aren't all bad in Stilben. The largest port city on this coast of Tal'Dorei, Stilben is the focal point of international trade with Wildemount. Even though Stilben's permanent population is a scant ten thousand, its more transient population of sialors who stay for a few days or weeks at a time is just as large, and fully triples Stilben's total population in the summer months.
Predictably, the vast majority of Stilben's business caters to folk who won't stay for long. There are brothels aplenty, at least one inn and one taverrn each on every streeet, and countless other comforts for the weary traveler. The town is nestled in the sticky depths of the K'Tawl Swamp, and its putrescent stink mingles with the humidity and the ever-present buzz of insects to produce an air of misery around Stilben's outer districts. Pushed out of Stilben's cozy, cosmopolitan heart, its poor and disenfranchized citizens—derisively called muck-dwellers by the town's bigshots—struggle to eke out a living in the K'Tawl's murky waters.
Central Stilben houses most of the city's businesses, residences, and attractions. Those living in Stilben's heart like to present a clean, "civilized" view of their town, maintaining it as a thriving commercial hub. The cross-continental Silvercut Roadway leads from Stilben all the way to Emon, and its robust trade of rare goods, textiles, and spices has given rise to a formidable merchant ruling class. Though Margrave Wendle Truss is Stilben's ruler in name, it is the guilds that hold true power. Their vast wealth and sizable "protection" force has forced the bombastic yet ineffectual Margrave to acquiesce to the will of guilds in order to maintain peace, as well as preserve his own station, within the city.
Order is kept by the Waterwatch, Stilben's official constabulary, but corruption is becoming more and more common within their ranks. The past few decades have been hard for the Clasp in Stilben. Though the local Spireling has kept a tight grip on the margrave and the Waterwatch, the Myriad has used bribes, intimidation, and every dirty trick in the book to winnow away the Clasp's power. Now, Stilben is little more than a crucible for the power struggle between the two criminal organizations.

Vox Machina

The citizens of Stilben do not know that some of Exandria's greatest heroes, Vox Machina, first met in their humble city and went on their first adventure in the muck of the K'Tawl Swamp. Back then, even the exalted Vox Machina were just dime-a-dozen adventurers, quickly forgotten by Stilben's haughty elite. One dwarf, named Heinrich Runescribe, a junior member of the Alabaster Lyceum's revered Lorekeeper Society, practically worships the heroes that defeated the Chroma Conclave and has made it his mission to record all of their travels. He believes that the heroes of Vox Machina first gathered in Stilben under inauspicious circumstances and were dragged into an unexpected battle against the Myriad.

Demographics

67% human, 11% elf, 11% halfling, 5% half-elf, 6% other

Type

City

Population

10,660

Location under

K'Tawl Swamp